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The day when the mountains almost got us

We have now reached L/R in Norway- a place beyond imagination. Once you take a moment and step outside your everyday life to see magical places like this- you know that life is a valuable tool that needs to be used often and in the best possible way. Yesterday we were reminded about the power of nature and the value of life.

It all started yesterday morning after leaving Fengersfors in Sweden. While listening to some good music from the cds and talking about life with Vincent. We noticed at one point that something had changed. It was here. The almighty winter.

At first we were amazed by the magnificent views of the mountains. As it started snowing more heavily Kirke got a bit concerned about the fact that we still had summer tires (quite flat ones) and the more higher we went, the steeper the canyons seemed. At one point we followed the GPS to take us through the mountains and almost made it to the top of a small hill. Then the car had no touch with the ground anymore- the breaks didn’t work, the first gear trick didn’t work and the car just didn’t stop going backwards. I got very anxious but managed to turn the car sideways so it wouldn’t just gather some more speed and go downhill. At the same time she put on the handbreak and tried to do a 180 with the sliding car.

We managed not to get smashed into a tree or a rock and didn’t end up in the steep sideways. But we certainly were stuck. Fortunately we had a car just behind us and even though they had winet tires they couln’t ride up. Right away we experienced some Norwegian kindness. Mark Puglisi, a local, made some phone calls and asked if someone could help to get us out. He also described seeing the car lift from one side and he thought that we would start rolling. Luckily that didn’t happen.

After waiting for some hours we got Mark’s friend Esdov Skori to help us out. The hole time our biggest hope was that we could drive on with the car and once they pulled the car out, the dream came true.

The car seemed to be okay and we could continue our trip. I also managed to fall quite heavily while going to the car and our camera was broken (we’ll try to make pictures with our phones now).

Vincent eating crisps IN the car despite the delicate situation…

As we knew that there might be some more snow and we had to get here somehow we went to a gas station and bought some real tyre chains (plus I asked the not-english-speaking-guy at the store show me how they need to be used). So after a 12 hour trip we made it to L/R in total darkness and woke up to find unimaginable beauty.